February 28, 2009

I couldn't agree more. The safety of cash and t-bills feels great. Shelter in the storm. Safe. And as the markets melt down, anyone is cash, especially US dollars and t-bills, is feeling like a super-genius.

Pretty amazing, eh?

And then.... when you least expect it... KA-POW. And that lovely safe cash ain't gonna be worth the paper it's printed on. That 3% yield will be a rounding error.

This may take months. It may take years. And as you know, timing is indeed everything.

The investment world has gone from underpricing risk to overpricing it. This change has not been minor; the pendulum has covered an extraordinary arc. A few years ago, it would have seemed unthinkable that yields like today’s could have been obtained on good-grade municipal or corporate bonds even while risk-free governments offered near-zero returns on short-term bonds and no better than a pittance on long-terms.

When the financial history of this decade is written, it will surely speak of the Internet bubble of the late 1990s and the housing bubble of the early 2000s. But the U.S. Treasury bond bubble of late 2008 may be regarded as almost equally extraordinary.

Clinging to cash equivalents or long-term government bonds at present yields is almost certainly a terrible policy if continued for long. Holders of these instruments, of course, have felt increasingly comfortable –in fact, almost smug – in following this policy as financial turmoil has mounted. They regard their judgment confirmed when they hear commentators proclaim “cash is king,” even though that wonderful cash is earning close to nothing and will surely find its purchasing power eroded over time.

Approval, though, is not the goal of investing. In fact, approval is often counter-productive because it sedates the brain and makes it less receptive to new facts or a re-examination of conclusions formed earlier.

Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns.

This new crew just doesn't get it. It's as if they're INTENTIONALLY letting the markets burn. Out of spite? Out of incompetence? Or is it some sort of plan to impoverish the entire country and ruin all businesses?

Unless we see a sense of urgency, and immediate movement on the points above, you are on your own. This team didn't cause The Great Unwinding. But their inactivity and incompetence is turning a bad situation into a catastrophic one. And soon, it will be too late.

I blame bad reporters, like Rolodex-of-Realtors Catherine Reagor at the Arizona Republic, who caused America to lose trust in its media.

I blame realtors and homebuilders for seducing the papers with billions in fraud-fueled ad dollars.

I blame the corporate media for allowing itself to be corrupted by the REIC.

I blame newspapermen for being stupid businesspeople, not understanding that the best newsstand price for their product is FREE, and for not understanding the internet, craigslist or blogs.

I blame newspaper editors for focusing on car crashes, fires and silly little local celebs, while ignoring the corruption in their own back yards.

I blame our increasingly dumbed down society, who refuse to read newspapers but love their reality tv.

In the end, I won't miss local newspapers. They sucked anyway. And you can get your local goings-on from the blogs and other websites.

I would miss the nationals, in a big, big, big way. The IHT, the WSJ, the NYT, the WashPost and especially the FT - the greatest newspaper in the world. And hell, I'd even miss the mind-candy USA Today. Always had a sweet spot for that rag.

But the Arizona Republic? The Rocky Mountain News? The Seattle PI?

Nah.

Good luck to the (good) reporters out there. If you get a chance to report again, remember that when your country needed you, you failed, and you left your job up to a ragtag group of unpaid bloggers.

February 27, 2009

Maybe the whole thing was one big mirage? And the biggest Ponzi Scheme in the history of man?

Serious question.

Stocks fell and the S&P 500 closed at a 12-year low on Friday, after the government said it will take a large stake in Citigroup's common shares, fanning fears it will increase its role in other major banks.

It's all gonna blow now. There's no way for it not to. The over-leveraged (in foreign currency) countries of Eastern Europe are now going to fail. Their governments will fall. And their people will experience untold suffering. Again. One by one. All of 'em.

Because they drank the REIC kool-aid and had one hell of a housing bubble. Because their people took out loans that had to be paid back in foreign currencies, and then their local currencies collapsed at the same time the underlying assets collapsed. Because their governments were incompetent and corrupt. Because a wave of British dentists gamed their property markets. And because the Western banks f*cked them, which of course has now f*cked the Western banks.

So come on down. Come to Eastern Europe this summer. Experience what happens when the world melts down. When the rage hits the streets.

I know most of you could care less about this region, and think their failure won't impact you.

And you are wrong.

Read up, understand, come on down, and get ready.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Eastern Europe has borrowed an estimated $1.7 trillion, primarily from Western European banks. And much of Eastern Europe is already in a deep recession bordering on depression. A great deal of that $1.7 trillion is at risk, especially the portion that is in Swiss francs. It is a story that could easily be as big as the US subprime problem.

Whether it takes months, or just weeks, the world is going to discover that Europe's financial system is sunk, and that there is no EU Federal Reserve yet ready to act as a lender of last resort or to flood the markets with emergency stimulus.

"Go [redacted] yourself. Then again, you're probably taking it up the [redacted] from your buddy Schiff. You [redacted] [redacted]."

______

"Why don't you read the Wall Street Journal article (and many others) on your boy Schiff and how he lost all his clients' money!! I may have gotten the housing forecast wrong a bit, but I made money for my clients, [redacted]hole!"

- Mike Norman, after losing his job and blaming cockroaches and Peter Schiff for it instead of himself, in two separate emails to S&A'ers, February 26, 2009. If you'd like to play along, contrarianmedia@hotmail.com. But be careful. He appears to be in a fragile and dangerous state. Be nice, civil and courteous. Unlike Norman.

Your ideas have been discredited. Your leaders have been pushed out, while some will soon be investigated and jailed. Your followers are demoralized. And your party is blamed for an epic and historic worldwide destruction.

There will be no recovery. The GOP is dead. And its members are now seen worldwide as thieves and scoundrels.

Like the Whigs, Know-Nothings, Federalists and Anti-Nebraskans before them, they'll eventually just go away. Or slither away as the case may be.

Some of their former and yet enlightened members like Ron Paul and Arnold Schwarzenegger will go on, but under a new banner, with new ideas, and new leaders. Maybe even Peter Schiff.

To be laid out as a fool for the whole world to see, while still trying to charge idiots for your bad advice, man, it's gotta be tough. Go work at Pizza Hut. Go sell cars. Go do anything for a living besides economic advice.

Feel free to contact Norman here. He loves the feedback evidently. Was it Tyrone who had a note back from him basically saying F off?

And of course, here's Norman's classic from 2007. You wonder if Mike Norman doesn't know that youtube exists? But hey, as he said:

"I think they're (home prices) are gonna be up to around 10%. What artificial lending standard are you talking about! Mortgages have been issued, we have a tiny default rate... the economy is strong... GDP is growing.. The demographics!..."

Make sure you watch this video to the end to see Norman's cocky and arrogant laughing as Schiff schooled him that home price appreciation would be simply washed away. It's not being wrong that bothers me, that's fine. It's arrogance.

Mike Norman, time for you to go away. You are a completely discredited hack. And you deserve all the scorn and criticism that comes your way.

[UPDATE- MIKE NORMAN'S BIZRADIO SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED - HE'S OFF THE AIR AS OF FRIDAY. GUESS THAT'S WHY HE WAS SO PISSED AT SCHIFF - BLAMING HIM FOR HIS FAILURE, INSTEAD OF LOOKING IN THE MIRROR. GOOD RIDDANCE NORMAN. GO AWAY. - LOVE, THE COCKROACHES]

February 25, 2009

If a riot breaks out in your city protesting government incompetence and corruption in creating this economic disaster, and their failure to arrest the bankers, mortgage brokers, mortgage fraudsters and realtors who caused it, will you join in?

And I hate the ones who are no longer in the room - Phil Graham, Dennis Hastert, Ted Stevens, Elizabeth Dole...

These people, enabled by the MSM and empowered by brain-dead voters, got us into this mess. They are directly to blame for the economic disaster at hand.

The REIC bought them, and they delivered. They let the hedge funds, investment banks and mortgage brokers run wild. They artificially propped up home prices with a stupid tax-free windfall law. They let the ponzi scheme of Social Security grow even more unsustainable. They got us into a $60 trillion hole. They crashed the stock market. They destroyed millions of jobs. They ruined America's reputation around the world. And they screwed your children, and your children's children.

They are enemies of America. Not representatives of America. And they need to go. Every one of them.

So enjoy the speech - it was a great one. The first one by a President that I've ever heard that addressed the economic problems we've talked about here for years head-on, that called a spade a spade, that said 'no more'. I guess that's the kind of speech you have to give when you are broke. When you've woken up in a puddle of your own vomit.

But he gave that speech to a room full of corrupt traitors, who have proven time and time again that they'd gladly f*ck the American people to reward their lobbyists and win the next election.

And pay particular attention to the disturbing antics of freak show Nancy Pelosi.

Your countrymen took out loans for homes they knew they couldn't afford, hoping to make a quick lat, and to make matters even worse they took them out at the advice of those nice bankers in dollars, euros and francs. And now they don't have a chance in the world of ever paying them back.

Your corrupt government empowered the REIC to come in and Ponzi Scheme up your nice little nation.

Your over-leveraged businesspeople and developers built speculative homes for housing-porn-addicted British dentists to flip, the Brits walked away, and now you hold the bag.

And now, your entire nation is junk.

But hey, so are your neighbors too. Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland and more.

Welcome to capitalism. And junk.

Latvia’s Rating Cut to Junk by S&P as Outlook Worsens

Latvia’s credit rating was cut to junk by Standard & Poor’s, the second European Union nation to receive such a grade, because of a “worsening external outlook” triggered by the global financial crisis.

Latvia’s economic boom, sparked by entry into the EU in 2004 and fueled by soaring wages and cheap credit, has turned to bust. The economy contracted 10.5 percent in the fourth quarter, the worst performance in the 27-nation bloc, and the government, which collapsed this week, was forced to take a 7.5 billion-euro ($9.6 billion) bailout from a group led by the International Monetary Fund.

1) 4% 40-year fixed rate mortgages (that Jim Cramer is now promoting) for any homedebtor or homebuyer, one house per person, payment of up to 30% of income, minimum 5% down, direct lending from Fannie/Freddie with no mortgage broker commission allowed. Plus Jim Cramer's idea of refi's for any home in America down to current appraisal, with the short amount picked up government insured certificate with any sale proceeds in the future to be applied against the coupon

2) Pull US troops out of every nation on earth and close down every foreign military base by 2015

3) Eliminate market to market accounting and restore the uptick rule

4) Ban SKF and all ultra-short stock ETFs

5) Nationalization of Citibank and Bank of America, which will then be used for direct lending by the government to solvent and credit-worthy businesses and individuals

6) Forced merger and pre-packaged bankruptcy of Ford, Chrysler and GM into one single private, non-union and debt-free national car company

I'd love to drive a Maserati. I'd love to take an around-the-world cruise. I'd love to shop at high-end designer stores.

And I'd love it if all of you would pay for me to live beyond my means and bail me out when I commit crimes or make bad bets.

And this, like so much else these past ten years, is sick. Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick.

Note to school bus drivers - you may be fine people, but you live in $80,000 homes at best, not $800,000 homes. You f*cking rent. You do NOT LIVE IN $800,000 HOMES. Got it?

No matter what's on MTV Cribs. No matter what's on HGTV. No matter what that nice mortgage broker tells you. No matter what that realtor on commission can swing for you, YOU DO NOT LIVE IN $800,000 HOMES! And oh, side note, mortgage fraud is indeed a crime. Even if George Bush and Eric Holder don't think so.Here's the video. Sorry, embed on CNN ain't working.

CNBC should send Santelli to DC immediately - as in on Monday - for his coffee sit-down with the White House, as invited. SO THAT HE CAN EXPRESS SOME F*CKING RAGE TO THE MAN. SO THAT HE CAN RELAY THE FEELINGS OF TENS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ON THE LEFT IN THE CENTER AND ON THE RIGHT WHO ARE SO FREAKING PISSED WITH GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE AND THAT WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE AREN'T GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE.

Seriously, Santelli should be on the way to DC tonight. And he should stand outside the White House gates until they let him in.

February 22, 2009

If you believe Cramer, we are staring into an abyss worse than 1,000 9/11's. Worst than 100 Pearl Harbors. We're on the verge of something that could take down America, and the world, and change your life forever. All wealth gone. People fighting in the streets. Governments overthrown. Money worthless. You know, just another day.

When a perma-bull like Cramer is talking about the end of the stock market and anarchy, I take note. Because it truly could be the end, or it could be the bottom.

Speaking on the upcoming bank nationalizations:

"If you wipe out the preferreds and the bonds, though, you know I believe the stock market will simply evaporate. That's how critical it is. I think that we could be down several thousand points on the wrong move"

In America, you don't need money or a job to buy a home, and mortgage fraud isn't a crime, so you can lie on your application, put no money down, and live in that home scott-free with no payment, for at least a year until anyone gets wise.

In America, it's illegal to buy a home without a REALTOR. REALTORS are the smartest people in America, so always do everything they say.

REALTORS can show you how to get rich by flipping houses. You'll never have to work again if you let a REALTOR help you. REALTORS are your best friends, and are honest and ethical and should always be trusted. You should reward your REALTOR with cash tips after you get your new home.

Let me be one of the first to pronounce Attorney General Eric Holder a total and complete failure. So far.

- Failure to arrest Angelo Mozilo- Failure to arrest Michael Perry- Failure to open any investigation of the Bush Administration's crimes- Failure to name an independent special prosecutor to investigate the REIC and Congress- Failure to announce any crackdown or investigation of the mortgage fraud orgy of the past decade

Eric Holder, we expect more. We expect a SENSE OF URGENCY. We expect the laws of the United States to be upheld.

And so far, you're just more of the same.

You are a FAILURE. You are the COWARD.

Now get on it, now, or resign.

(Want to be heard? Call Holder at 202-353-1555 and shout at the top of your lungs "ARREST ANGELO MOZILO! Click.)

I'm talking about sending the women of the world out onto the streets nearly naked, looking like prostitutes short.

I'm talking about the Muslims, Mormons and Baptists having heart attacks short.

THE WORLD WILL NOT RECOVER UNTIL WE GET SHORT SKIRTS!

NOW GET IT DONE DAMMIT!!

(and I'm hoping my female readers take one for the team and lead the charge! And if you find this post insulting or offending, that's your problem)

Hemline/Skirt Length Indicator

This theory suggests that the direction of the economy can be predicted based upon the average length of hems in that year’s new fashion lines. If skirts are short, markets are on the rise. Conversely, if skirts are long, markets are heading down.

The rationale is that longer skirts are worn when general consumer confidence is low, demonstrating fear and lacked spending. When skirts are short, consumer optimism and confidence is high, indicating a bullish market.

Are they planning to conduct a lie detector test before getting government cheese?

They say they're not going to help speculators that were betting on a risky market, or anyone who was in a house they couldn't afford.

Uh, OK. I'll take them at their word. But aren't we talking about five or six people then?

Go to Phoenix. Talk to upside down homedebtors.

They listened to realtors on commission, they read the cheerleading builder-ad-supported Arizona Republic, they watched all the housing porn shows, they got hyperventilated by their neighbors and co-workers who were making a killing, and they decided to jump.

They bought houses they couldn't afford, they committed mortgage fraud in most cases to do it, and THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GONNA GET RICH RICH RICH. And tax-free to boot.

The sign of a market bottom will be when total panic and despondency is in the air.

When everyone you know is scared.

When gold is all anyone can talk about.

When NOBODY in their right mind would ever buy a stock again, and rushes to sell everything they have, at any price.

When it looks like capitalism will not survive.

But who knows, maybe this time there will be no bottom. Maybe this time is different. Maybe this time, it will all fall apart. Maybe this time, all wealth will be lost, all stocks will go to zero, all currencies will fail, all jobs will be lost, millions will die, and neighbors will fight neighbors for food.

The fact that you'd even consider that should either scare you sh*tless, or make you hopeful that we're seeing the bottom right about..... now.

Work hard. Save your money. Invest in your 401k and stocks. Play by the rules. Buy a house and be a part of the American dream. Homes and stocks are the best investments you can ever make. Trust your government and business leaders. Capitalism and the free market work best. Go ahead and take out student debt, there will always be great jobs for you in America.

So, time for the final cataclysmic stock market crash? Or does that look like an epic double-bottom to you?

February 19, 2009

"'The government is promoting bad behavior. Do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages. This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard!!!"

Either Ken Lewis is telling the truth, the BofA balance sheet that he signs off on isn't as bad as we all think it is, and he's in strict compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.

Or he is not.

I'm thinking "not".

Ken Lewis and Bank of America have financial AIDS, thanks to sleeping with Angelo Mozilo and John Thain. We tried to warn him. He did not listen. He got drunk. He should have used protection. But no, he wanted to party.

So here's financial-AIDS-ridden Lewis, who has single-handedly destroyed a great American institution and the lives of thousands, either telling the truth, or lying his ass off and daring Eric Holder to arrest him when it all blows up:

Bank of America Corp. chief executive Ken Lewis fired back Friday against speculation that his company could be nationalized by the government, dismissing such talk as “a bunch of malicious rumors.”

“It's just absurd,” Lewis said in an interview on CNBC. In all his talks with government officials, he said, “I've never had anybody even hint at it.”

Lewis also said the Charlotte bank will not need more government money. “Categorically, I can say no,” he said.

The Stanford Financial Group, through its political action committee and employees, has contributed $2.4 million to political candidates, parties and committees in the U.S. since 1989, with nearly two-thirds going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that tracks campaign spending.

Most of that cash flowed during the 2002 election cycle, when Congress was debating a financial services antifraud bill that would have linked the databases of state and federal banking, securities and insurance regulators. The bill ultimately died in the Senate, where the biggest recipients have been Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. ($45,900); Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ($28,150); Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. ($27,500); and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas ($19,700). Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, also received $41,375.

Stanford and his wife, Susan, also donated $931,100 of their own money, with 78 percent going to Democrats, including $4,600 to President Barack Obama's presidential campaign last May 31. Records show $2,300 of that was returned on the same day.

I truly feel sorry for regular folks who lived within their means, put some money down and bought a house for their family that they could afford, and then because of life circumstances could no longer afford the monthly payment. You know, the 10% of homedebtors that this describes.

I do NOT feel sorry for failed housing gamblers, guilty mortgage fraudsters, greedy speculators, cash-out HELOC whores and housing porn addicts who tried to game the system for their personal gain. You know, the 90% of homedebtors that this describes.

Obama says this program will not help "speculators who took risky bets on a rising market who bought homes not to live in but to sell". Yeah, right. Because that describes almost ALL of Phoenix Arizona (and the US).

We'd be better off nationalizing the banks, RTC'ing the foreclosures, moving the homedebtors to renters, and starting over. But that'd be the right thing to do.

BTW, I wonder if Greg Swann was at his speech today, wondering about those 21 Reasons and the Brownshirts who'd never admit they were very publicly very foolish.

February 17, 2009

We could stay in Despondency and Depression for a long, long time, based on the magnitude of what they have done. But I think all of you would agree by now that we're past Fear, Desperation and Panic.

The past week, starting with Geithner's disastrous amateur hour, feels like the start of Capitulation. Throw-in-the-towel, I'll never invest again, I trust nobody or nothing, houses are completely worthless, capitalism is dead, the Dow is going to 1,000 and will never recover Capitulation.

If that's the case, then Despondency (and worldwide riots, famine and awfulness) is around the corner.

Whatever it is, it's been amazing to follow this chart. It's told us everything. EVERYTHING. After this is all said and done, and you go back and look at this chart, it will all become clear.

That maybe, because of the magnitude of what they have done, that this time it truly IS different?

Or is this end-of-the-world feeling, the absolute collapse of the housing market, the destruction of the banks, the crash of the stock market, and the trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of losses a good sign we're near bottom?

February 16, 2009

In this case a 26-year-old mortgage broker con-man who enabled over $1 billion in fraud loans.Let's see if anyone will notice. Let's see if mortgage fraud will one day again be a crime in America.

Hat-tip to housingdoom for the video..

[UPDATE - Right after posting I saw that he was just caught at the Canada/US border, with $70k in cash, $1m in gold certs and for the hell of it some platinum. And he just got back from an around the world trip hiding his loot, including gold in Lebanon. Not bad for a 26-year old kid.

How did this happen? Where was the oversight? Where were the auditors and appraisers and risk analysts? The Bush Years - aka The United States of Financial Anarchy.]

February 13, 2009

I give you in its entirety an important and amazingly prescient Op-Ed from 2000 by Ralph Nader on Alan Greenspan, his association with Ayn Rand, and the destruction of the American financial regulatory apparatus.

Which as we know now destroyed the American financial system, and led to one of the biggest financial collapses in world history.

Greenspan Shrugged: The Reserve Chair's Philosophy Differs Little From His Ayn Rand Days

by Ralph NaderPublished on Tuesday, April 18, 2000 in the San Francisco Bay Guardian

Last year Congress made Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan a virtual regulatory czar over financial services corporations. Considering the waves of adulation that have been sweeping over Greenspan, the anointment was not a surprise.

It would be reasonable to assume that before placing this important regulatory power under the Federal Reserve, Congress undertook a careful review of Greenspan's regulatory philosophy and record. You can toss that assumption in the nearest trash can.

Congress knows little and cares less about how Greenspan views the government's role in protecting the public interest and the public purse. The same is true for the three presidents -- Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and William Clinton -- who have appointed and reappointed Greenspan to four terms as chair of the Federal Reserve.

A causal observer of Senate confirmation hearings would be led to believe that financial regulation has nothing to do with the job of Federal Reserve chair. The issue never comes up. It is the rarest of occurrences when a congressional oversight hearing places a Federal Reserve official in the dock over financial regulatory shortcomings.

Yet Congress, with only half-hearted opposition from the Clinton administration's Treasury Department, handed Greenspan and the Federal Reserve the regulatory plums when it authorized the merger of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies under common ownership in giant conglomerates. The safety and soundness of the nation's financial system will rest heavily on how vigorously the Federal Reserve carries out its responsibility.

For longtime watchers of Greenspan the move was incongruous, if not outright risky. As a disciple of Ayn Rand, later as an economic guru for the Republican Party, and still later as a lobbyist for financial corporations, Greenspan has disagreed with regulation as a tool to protect consumers and the well-being of a free enterprise economy.Greenspan has argued that the self-interest of the corporations – the desire of corporations to protect their reputation – was all that was necessary for consumer protection.

In an article published in 1963 as part of Ayn Rand's book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Greenspan declared that protection of the consumer against "dishonest and unscrupulous business was the cardinal ingredient of welfare statism."

"Regulation which is based on force and fear undermines the moral base of business dealings," he wrote. "Protection of the consumer by regulation ... is illusory."

Some may well argue that these diatribes against regulation were part of a passing phase in Greenspan's career. Perhaps, but this philosophy was alive and well when Greenspan, as a consultant-lobbyist, badgered federal regulators. In one case, Greenspan intervened directly with the principal regulator of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings in an attempt to gain special exemptions from regulations for the institution. Risky investments ultimately brought Lincoln Savings down, sent Keating to jail, and cost the taxpayers $2.5 billion. Greenspan became chair of the Federal Reserve.

Greenspan's antiregulation philosophy continues to crop up at the Federal Reserve. Not only has the General Accounting Office raised questions about the efficacy of the Federal Reserve's regulation of bank holding companies, but Greenspan has erected roadblocks to the collection of data important to consumer protection and fair lending as well.

In 1996 Greenspan was urged to help in the enforcement of fair lending laws by collecting data on the race and gender of applicants for small business and consumer loans. Despite pleas from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, Greenspan and his fellow governors blocked the proposal.

This year Greenspan decided to end the collection of nationwide data on bank fees. The survey, which was authorized as part of the financial reforms adopted in 1989, has proven an excellent tool that consumer groups have used to highlight and battle the excessive fees that banks impose on consumers.

Similarly, the Federal Reserve is dropping its "Functional Cost Analysis" study, which has provided important data on how much it costs banks to provide services. This has been a great tool for measuring the validity of bank charges. Credit unions, particularly, have made good use of this data to dramatize fee and interest rate gouging by banks.

But if we believe the words of Greenspan during his Ayn Rand period, he probably doesn't see any need for such data, much less regulation.

And if anyone complains about the loss of such consumer and fair-lending information, Greenspan could send them this excerpt from his writings with Ayn Rand: "Government regulation is not an alternative means of protecting the consumer. It does not build quality into goods, or accuracy into information. Its sole contribution is to substitute force and fear for incentive as the 'protector' of the consumer. The euphemisms of government press releases to the contrary notwithstanding, the basis of regulation is armed force. At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun."

And this is the Alan Greenspan who Congress believes should protect the public interest in the regulation of the new financial conglomerates?

February 12, 2009

America needs checks and balances. It needs a Coke to a Pepsi. It needs at least two viable political parties. Check that. It needs at least two viable political parties that AREN'T the corrupt Democrats or the Republicans. But that's what we're stuck with, since the system is fixed.

That said, now we're down to one viable party. The GOP has been destroyed. And believe it or not, that's bad news for America. Because Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running around DC unchecked is a scary, scary thought.

But, like Jason or Chucky, the Republicans can eventually awaken from the dead. They'll likely wander in the political wilderness now, maybe for a generation. But eventually, they'll likely come back.

How?

A) The Democrats f*ck it up so bad that the GOP becomes the "Not Them" choice in the voting booth

The GOP will be out of power for quite some time. The damage they caused the nation and the world these past eight years is so great, they're truly the Nazi party of America. They might need to change their name, the brand is so damaged. And you know what, eventually I think they will.

The New GOP. The Grand New Party. The New Republicans. Something like that.

Why?

Because the old one sucked.

And for sh*ts and giggles, check out the future of the New Republican Party here.